How long should brakes on the CMAX Last?

[JC in GB]

I own a 2016 Ford C-Max and this will be the third set of rotors I have had to replace since I purchased the car.

 

The car has less than 30,000 miles.  This latest repair is going to need rotors, pads, and likely a booster.  It will cost me $1500 + dollars.

 

I have driven Ford vehicles for years and have NEVER had such chronic brake issues.

 

I cannot put into words how disappointed I am with the quality drop off in FORD vehicles.

 

My last Ford was an Escort and I drove that car for 16 years with very few issues.

 

After the issues with my Focus and the garbage transmission and now these garbage brakes on my C-Max, I am thinking I won't be purchasing another Ford ever.

[C-MaxA2]

Have 2 C-Maxs (one a '2016' but built in 2015).  Zero brake problems. 

 

Something is weird here and perhaps you need to go to a different dealer, etc.  Do you drive it differently?  

 

Most people with C-Maxs go 100k without any brake issues or needed repairs/maintenance. 

[stolenmoment]

I've had inspectors try to tell me that my disks needed replacing, that's hogwash.  We don't keep our disks polished like ICE cars do because we mostly brake with regen, so the disks look like crap.  However, they work just fine, thankyouverymuch.

Go somewhere else and see what they say.

[Lacienega]

140 000 miles on our 2014 sel and still original brakes

[ptjones]

I went 273k mi. with out changing the brakes and they were fine when I traded in the car. ?

 

Paul

[Hafro Samurai]

On 11/2/2022 at 11:17 AM, JC in GB said:

I own a 2016 Ford C-Max and this will be the third set of rotors I have had to replace since I purchased the car.

 

The car has less than 30,000 miles.  This latest repair is going to need rotors, pads, and likely a booster.  It will cost me $1500 + dollars.

 

I have driven Ford vehicles for years and have NEVER had such chronic brake issues.

 

I cannot put into words how disappointed I am with the quality drop off in FORD vehicles.

 

My last Ford was an Escort and I drove that car for 16 years with very few issues.

 

After the issues with my Focus and the garbage transmission and now these garbage brakes on my C-Max, I am thinking I won't be purchasing another Ford ever.

I feeeeeeel your frustration. I inherited my 2013 after my aunt passed away. It had 17.5k miles and boy was in for a surprise. I moved to Oregon maybe 6 months ago and began working as a contracted DD river delivering peoples' luggage that airline had lost. I have learned very quickly that at least the mechanical motorcraft and ford parts are of pretty sad quality for the c-max. I've been replacing component after component on the suspension and have yet to get it back to even a faint resemblance for the smooth ride it once provided 6 months ago. Almost 42k miles on it presently and have replaced far too much! I cannot recommend it enough though......to all of sound body and mind enough to take on the work themselves, I firmly believe you should. I'm no mechanic, however I am persistent in learning to do my own wrenching and troubleshooting if I'ma keep this car since I just can't......I CANNOT take it to another professional mechanic and then tell me it's completely fine. For a moment there I thought I might have be actually losing it, but luckily no haha. I can tell you that it's worth looking in to what goes into each repair or replacement and just tackle the things you're comfortable with. Haven't touched the brakes yet however on normal cars replacing the rotors and pads is among the easier services to learn. Not sure how much extra time with these regenerative type but I'll learn that soon enough.

 

Regardless of doing the work yourself or not I cannot stress how useful odb2 scan tools are for these modern vehicles and their canbus networks that are so akin to our nervous system. Touchy as hell and sometimes things are connected that aren't quite logical. I originally purchased the bluedriver scanner but it didn't do enough. A YouTuber recommended the Thinkcar scanners and I ended up getting the ThinkDiag2 for only a tad more than the bluedriver. It's a bidirectional scan tool that gives you the ability to not only read and clear codes but run tests diagnostics as well as actuate different components and systems making troubleshooting much easier rather than. I do believe you have to pay for access to the software after the first free year that is likely still included. Pays for itself though, especially when you can pull all the codes and show up to your mechanic with PDF you can email them saving you at least a half hourish of labor. 

Anyway, I registered here after realizing that I now have some knowledge about these cars. Not as familiar with the Energi where the differences matter. It's nice to know there are others who have felt some of the things I have. 

 

[TomZweifel]

I just did my brakes on my 2018 for the first time last month with 88k on the vehicle, and I can only say that it looks like I destroyed my brake pads by not using the friction brakes enough.  I drive like a saint and I'm never on the binders at highway speed unless something jumps out in front of me.  The corrosion and uneven wear on the rotors was horrible, you could actually see where there was only a very small portion of the brake pads actually making contact with the rotors.  This is the Northeast US and they salt the roads plenty in the winter.  The final straw came when I had to get on them pretty hard to avoid an accident and I could smell the brakes smoldering.  I kept looking around for the tractor trailer that locked 'em up before I realized it was me. 

 

There was still about 8mm left on the front pads.  I did all four corners, replaced the pads and turned the rotors down about 1.5mm total and it's as good as new.  Just make sure if you get 'em done you take it to a shop that still knows how to turn rotors down, it seems like none of them want to be bothered with that anymore and may not even have a lathe or know how to use it.  Re-using your original rotors will save you about $400 on the job ($150 each for the front and $100 each for the rear, less $100 to have them turned).

 

I can't imagine how car manufacturers aren't going to have to start using more corrosion resistant brake rotors on EVs because they're not being used nearly as much.  Then I have to imagine the lunacy of putting carbon ceramic brake rotors on a car that hardly need to use its friction brakes.

Edited January 17, 2023 by TomZweifel

[BiigAl]

I bought my 2014 CMAX SEL March 2017 with less than 16K miles.  The rear rotors had rust and scaring from underutilization. The pad contact was probably 40%. In March 2020 it failed the annual Virginia Safety Inspection because of the rear rotors. I argued with the technician that it has been that way since I bought it and it has passed inspection before. He showed me the regulation in the VA Code book and there was nothing he could do but fail it. 

 

So, at 75k miles I replaced the rear rotors and pads. I figured I got away with it for 3 years and now I had optimum braking performance. Today I have 122k miles on the front brakes and they still look new. 

[homestead]

My 2013 SEL still has original brakes with no issues at 68k miles.

Maybe you could brake hard periodically to clean the rotors/pads especially before inspections.